Samuel Cunard

(1787-1865) a Canadian ship owner who in 1839 started a service carrying passengers across the Atlantic between Britain and North America. The journey then took about two weeks. The company became known as the Cunard Line and had many famous ships, among them the Mauretania and the Lusitania from 1907, the Queen Mary (1936), the Queen Elizabeth (1940) and the QE2 (1967).